He also taught the only other Anti-Transcendentalist writer of his period -- Herman Melville. ... Anti-Transcendentalists, like Hawthorne and his apprentice Melville, focused instead on the limitations and potential destructiveness of the human spirit, rather than on it's possibilities. ... Some of that evil is portrayed in his stories by his use of allegories -- characters, settings, and events that have a symbolic meaning. ... This is very evident in The Scarlet Letter where he uses setting and characterization to create an image of the various characters who each symbolize a different ...

• Word Count: 855
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The myopic nature of this troubling view was lamented in one of the most famous speeches ever given, "I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."... Additional pieces in our reading, such as Melville's Bartelby the Scrivner and Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown, indicate early American writers' ability and willingness to question the troubling things they witnessed among the society in which they lived. ...

• Word Count: 1162
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate